Picking a better way to listen
After spending an hour or two in the catalogs, I almost wish for the good old days. Back when what you built up yourself was suitable, little matter the project.
I was wondering what people used to get sound out of an electronic keyboard, once you graduated from headphones. Turns out that most of the stock I have around here would not be on the recommended list for anyone else. My 15 watt guitar amp? Not even for a guitar (it was a freebie with a knockoff axe). A 40 watt bass amp? After all, I’ve had it for three decades… Useful only if I never progress beyond noodling with my left hand. The powered studio monitors? Nope. Don’t even consider it. They’re already allocated.
Which brings me back to the shopping fever. What if I opted to go with a PA speaker, rather than a keyboard amp? Perhaps, if I won the lottery. So much quality out there; all of it beyond my spending limit.
Of course, I could opt for the Kijiji experience, except that I don’t have the time to drive from here to there and back again, in hopes of conducting more than a 30 second audio test. And what about returning to the “old days”… what if I purchased some industrial speakers, and an industrial amp, and put them into some industrial enclosures? Unfortunately, I am better equipped to criticize the results. It could end up with an execrable industrial tone. Hardly the way to show off my musical skills. I’m dreaming, but just a bit.
In the end (yet to be written), I’ll pick something at the low end of the price range, and go on to convince myself about how wonderful things sound. Just like in the beginning.
